Singing soldier at Beaumont performs at Academy of Country Music concert

FORT BLISS >> A soldier who works at William Beaumont Army Medical Center recently got a taste of her lifelong dream to be a big-time country music performer.

Spc. Kelly Gregg, a 23-year-old Huntington, W.Va. native, got to play guitar and sing during a star-studded concert put on by the Academy of Country Music on April 7 in Las Vegas.

The concert — called "Academy of Country Music Presents: An All-Star Salute to the Troops" — was taped and will be shown nationwide on Armed Forces Day on May 20 at 8 p.m. local time on CBS.

Gregg, a patient administration specialist at Beaumont, got to perform one song with The Band Perry, a popular country group consisting of three siblings. Gregg and lead singer Kimberly Perry traded off vocals on the song "If I Die Young."

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David Burge

"As I walked out on the stage and looked up at 14,000 people and saw my face on the Jumbotron, I thought internally that I've been around the world and back" in the Army, Gregg said. "I finally found the place where I belong, where I am most comfortable and feel completely fulfilled."

Gregg was one of about a half dozen service members to perform during the concert. A profile of her will also air during the show.

She was inspired to the join the Army by her brother, Jeffrey Gregg, a disabled veteran who served in Iraq in 2005-06.

"He's my fuel for why I keep wearing the uniform," Gregg said.

She started singing when she was about 2 and learned to play guitar when she was 8 or 9.

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"I love wearing the uniform and love what I do," Gregg said. "My job as a patient administration specialist holds a dear spot in my heart, but what I got to do (at the concert) was my dream, what I've been setting out to do my entire life."

Gregg will soon leave Beaumont after three years there and move on to an Army installation in Germany. Her last day at the Central El Paso Army hospital will be May 12. Coincidentally, she will be back home in Huntington on leave when the concert airs on television, she said. Her hometown is looking for a special venue to play the show in her honor, she said.

Beaumont Army Medical Center Spc. Kelly Gregg is a singer and guitarist who recently performed at a star-studded concert put on by Academy of Country Music. The show will be televised nationwide on May 20 as part of Armed Forces Day. ( VICTOR CALZADA-EL PASO TIMES )

Gregg said she's a little overwhelmed and a little humbled by her experience. Besides playing a song with The Band Perry, she got to go to the Academy of Country Music's awards show and meet a virtual hall of fame of country music legends.

Perhaps, the highlight was shaking "King of Country" George Strait's hand and having a short conversation with him.

Strait performed in Huntington every year when Gregg was growing up. She remembers working in a pizza parlor as a teenager and saving her money so she could go see him perform.

"It was so organized," Gregg said of her trip to Las Vegas. "Everything was taken care of. I had a personal escort who made sure I was everywhere I had to be and had everything I needed. They treated me like a celebrity. I was, 'Hey, I'm just like you. I'm just a soldier.'"

Col. Michael S. Heimall, commander of Beaumont, praised Gregg in her role as a soldier and her talent as a musician.

"Spc. Gregg is a fine example of the quality of soldiers we have in Army Medicine today," Heimall said. "Not only is she an excellent soldier, she is truly gifted as a singer and performer."

Gregg's time at Beaumont was broken up by an eight-month stint training, rehearsing and performing with the 2013 U.S. Army Soldier Show, a traveling revue of Army performers, vocalists, dancers and musicians.

A friend of hers from the show, Sgt. Quentin Dorn, who still works with Army Entertainment as a production stage manager for the 2014 Army Soldier Show, was the one who told her about the opportunity to be included in the "All-Star Salute to the Troops."

She had just one day to fill out an application and meet the deadline, but was selected. In March, Rink Entertainment, contracted through Dick Clark Productions, came out to Beaumont and El Paso to film a profile of Gregg to be used in the show. She had sent all her instruments back to West Virginia when she was in the Soldier Show because she didn't want to put them in storage in the El Paso heat and have them possibly get ruined. Her instruments hadn't arrived back here yet, so Guitar Center of El Paso lent her a nice guitar to use during the segment, Gregg said.

During the concert itself, she played a guitar valued at $8,000 to $9,000 that was lent to her by McPherson Guitars of Wisconsin. The guitar was made out of redwood from Yosemite National Park, she said.

"I was like, 'Oh, my gosh,'" she said. "It was so beautiful."

She credits her parents, Jeff Gregg and Susan Bowen, with making sure she always had instruments to play when she was growing up.

"They are my biggest fans," she said.

Now, the rest of the country and her fellow soldiers will get to see her talent come alive on TV.